"Woven wood" is a term used to described certain drapery material comprising slats of wood, plastic or the like joined by fabric or other flexible material. In a typical installation the slats are arranged horizontally and the curtain is rolled up and down on cords. It has been suggested to arrange the slats vertically and suspend them from above on a traverse rod arranged with carriers and a pull cord to open and close the curtain, in accordion fashion, but such a suggestion has only rarely been followed even in the custom designed curtain trade. One of the problems associated with the vertically disposed arrangement has to do with keeping the slats properly spaced and aligned. The human eye is not good for estimating the value of dimensions of items standing alone but the eye readily detects proportions between items and dimensional differences between related objects, with extreme accuracy. Thus, slight misalignments and variations in the slat spacing in a vertically disposed woven wood curtain are noticeable and bothersome. One way to support and align woven wood curtains employed in the past included the use of horizontal strips of plastic or cord secured to the top of each slat to limit the distance therebetween when the curtain was closed (slats fully extended) to a specific dimension. This was intended to place the slats in perfect alignment, but in practice, due to looseness of the fabric hinges between the slats, the slats would assume positions of minor misalignment which the eye could detect. In addition, when the curtain was opened up so as to bunch the slats at the sides, the spacing cords or horizontal strips at the tops of each slat would also bunch up, and extend either upwardly where they would interfere with the sliding action of the curtain carrier, or they would extend downwardly in the form of unsightly loops where they would also interfere with the bunching of the slats.
Another problem associated with vertically disposed slat-type curtains had to do with the manner in which the ends of the curtain were supported. Thus, if the end slat was pivoted about a fixed vertical axis, along its centerline, when the curtain was closed, one half of the end slat pivoted away from the wall and opened up a slit for the passage of light. On the other hand, if the end slat was fixed to the wall, it could not pivot in the same way as the intermediate slats. Hitherto there has been no solution for this problem, and non-uniformity along the side margins of such curtains has remained a problem.
Accordingly, among the objects of the invention is the provision of a vertically arranged slat-type curtain and support combination in which the vertical alignment and spacing between slats is accurately controlled. A further object is to provide accurate spacing means which neither interferes with the sliding action of the curtain supports nor hangs down to present unsightly loops or an obstacle to bunching. Still another object is to provide means for supporting the curtain ends so as to avoid opening up a light leak along the sides of the curtain when it is closed and to permit the use of additional curtain material between the marginal end of the curtain and a wall if desired.